We've all been there: you show up a little later than you'd planned for work, and, of course, your boss just happens to see you sneaking in, and then you have to explain yourself. Most of us are sensible enough to say something vague, like "problem with my car." And that's smart because, according to a new survey released by CareerBuilder, the most common reasons workers are late to work are traffic, lack of sleep, bad weather, and getting kids to school/daycare. So, if you're making up an excuse, stick to something in one of those four categories if you want it to be believable. What you probably don't want to do is give bizarre, extremely specific excuses like the ones hiring managers in the survey said they received. Here are the ten most ridiculous reasons for tardiness they reported getting from their workers:

1. Employee's cat had the hiccups.
2. Employee thought she had won the lottery (she didn't).
3. Employee got distracted watching the TODAY Show.
4. Employee's angry roommate cut the cord to his phone charger, so it didn't charge and his alarm didn't go off.
5. Employee believed his commute time should count toward his work hours.
6. Employee claimed a fox stole her car keys.
7. Employee's leg was trapped between the subway car and the platform (turned out to be true).
8. Employee said he wasn't late because he had no intention of getting to work before 9:00 a.m. (his start time was 8:00 a.m.)
9. Employee was late because of a job interview with another firm.
10. Employee had to take a personal call from the state governor (turned out to be true).

Well, you certainly have to give people points for creativity. Though to be fair cat hiccups do throw a real wrench into a morning routine, those damn foxes are very clever, and, hey, the Today Show can be extremely distracting... Oops, sorry, gotta run! The governor is on the line for me. He's probably calling to tell me I've won the lottery!